Designing Sensors Using Nano-Junctions

Nanowire field effect transistors can be modeled for ultrasensitive charge detection based bio- or chemical sensors. As critical dimensions of the nanowire sensor can be of the same order of size of biological molecules or chemical species yielding exceptional sensing possibilities. In addition, the large surface/volume ratio will give high sensitivities simply because surface effects dominate over bulk properties. Thus, we modeled Si nanowire with different geometries in the different chemical environment using NEGF approach. To analyze the performance, the sensitivity of Si nanowire with different cross sections including circular, rectangular, and triangular is derived by two definitions. It is calculated that the sensitivity of Si nanowire with different structures is a function of geometrical parameters and doping density. It is illustrated that the sensitivity varies inversely with cross-section area, doping density, and also the length of nanowire.